Alan Griffin (Bruce, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to talk about veterans’ health issues and, in particular, some evidence that came out regarding some of these issues at Senate estimates last night. The issue of veterans’ mental health is a very serious issue. From statistics that have become available from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, we know it is a growing issue, as the problems do not actually manifest themselves until quite some time after the event. They can have lasting implications for the families of veterans as well as for the individual veterans themselves. Those problems can be long lasting, having implications for the families and the veterans for years and years to come. Last night there was a discussion regarding the issue of statistics in this area. In fact, Senator Hurley raised a number of figures which had come out of a recent article in the Australian. I want to go to that article in a second, but I must admit I was surprised by the response of the department. Ken Douglas, its general manager of service delivery, said:

I can’t confirm your figure. It is not a figure that sticks in my mind.

The departmental secretary, Mark Sullivan, whom I have a lot of time for, did say a number of things, including:

We don’t go checking newspaper articles for facts every time they appear. They write all sorts of things.

The concern that I have about that is that this was an article in the major national newspaper, the Australian, that went through some of the figures in relation to PTSD, so I am really surprised that the department did not come to estimates last night briefed on that article, aware of that article. Although I take the point from the departmental head’s expressed position that he in fact may not have been fully aware of the detail, I would be very surprised if the minister had not sought a briefing on the figures and I would be very surprised if the department had not examined the article. I am therefore a bit disappointed that they were not able to come along to estimates last night and actually speak about the figures themselves.

I would like to go to that article now and read from it to make a few points clear about what is certainly out there in the public arena as to the PTSD situation. It says:

ONE in four Australian soldiers who served in Vietnam has made a successful claim for posttraumatic stress disorder. Documents from the Veterans Affairs Department, obtained under Freedom of Information laws, reveal 15,000 successful claims for PTSD out of the 60,000 defence personnel who served in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s.

They also reveal that, more than 60 years since the end World War II, a legacy of PTSD is still emerging, with more than 726 successful claims by Australia’s oldest veterans between 2004 and last year.

The documents show Veterans Affairs has accepted 3069 claims for PTSD between 2004 and last year from Australian military who served overseas, including 1637 successful claims from Vietnam Veterans.

It goes on to say:

More than 2760 Australian veterans of overseas service have successfully claimed PTSD in the past three years.

The ADF has been operating at a punishing tempo in recent years with nearly 3000 soldiers currently overseas. The offshore deployment reached a peak of 5000 during the East Timor crisis in May last year.

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Australia’s leading PTSD expert, Alexander McFarlane, said “significantly more” claims would emerge because of Australia’s high tempo of military operations.

Professor McFarlane—head of the University of Adelaide’s Centre of Military and Veterans Health and a senior adviser in psychiatry to the ADF—said PTSD could emerge long after the events that caused the harm.

“There is often a long tail to the disorder—I have patients only manifesting in later age,” he said.

“Someone can function extraordinarily well in combat and break down some years later.”

There is no doubt there are serious issues in terms of these statistics and in terms of the future. Also, I point to the question of what is now happening overseas. I will quote from another article, this one in the Daily Telegraph, headed ‘Secret casualties of Aussie war on terror’. It says:

THE cost of the war on terror can be revealed, with documents showing at least 236 Australians who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan being granted disability pensions.

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs has secretly accepted liability for a range of mental and physical injuries that have emerged after leaving the battlefield, including hearing loss, post-traumatic stress disorder, back problems and alcoholism.

The 236 disability pensioners dwarfs the “official” Australian Defence Force casualty count of just 20 in Iraq—plus two deaths—and 11 in Afghanistan.

…            …            …

Department documents show medical pensions have been granted for mental and physical injuries to 109 individuals who have seen service in the Iraq conflict. A further 171 people who served in Afghanistan as part of the international coalition have also received medical pensions. As 44 of these disability pensioners have served in both conflicts, the total comes to 236.

…            …            …

These veterans have been assessed as having permanent injuries that pass the 10 per cent threshold for incapacity required to access a fortnightly disability pension under the Veterans Entitlements Act.

The fact is that these figures show that the sorts of issues that we are dealing with as a result of overseas deployments are a growing problem that we have to be very much aware of. (Time expired)